My heart sinks each time I see the subject line in this too common email I receive in my medical practice: “Sad news: Matthew was fine when he went to bed last night but his mother found him dead in bed this morning.” Matthew (not his real name) had epilepsy with seizures that persisted despite use of currently available antiseizure medications.
We started Matthew’s evaluation when the latest antiseizure medication had been ...

In 2011, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg remarked upon a “new direction in the treatment of hepatitis C,” as a success rate of approximately 70% marked a significant improvement over the previous rate of approximately 50%, and suggested a cure was in sight.
Today, that cure has been realized as Sovaldi (sofosbuvir), a novel agent, has shown a success rate of 95% in clinical trials. Sofosbuvir comes without the ...

"The Eastern medicine revolution?"
These were the words emblazoned across the screen behind Dr. David L. Katz, founding director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, as he discussed the growing popularity of holistic integrative medicine on a recent edition of the Katie Couric Show.
The conversation centered on the opening of Cleveland Clinic's Chinese herb therapy ward in January of this year, the first of its kind at a major U.S. hospital. Dr. ...

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 64-year-old man is evaluated for a 2-year history of knee osteoarthritis. He has bilateral knee pain that worsens with walking. He has tried topical therapies, physical therapy, and acetaminophen, none of which has provided relief. The patient also has peripheral vascular disease, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension. Medications are hydrochlorothiazide, pravastatin, and a ...

A health research company just released a list of the 100 top drugs in America according to sales. 29th on the list, with sales of over $1.8 billion, is the cholesterol lowering drug ezetimibe, brand name Zetia.
This drug was released over 10 years ago because it worked really well in combination with statin drugs such as Zocor (simvastatin) to lower LDL cholesterol levels. It was released as a single agent and combined ...

Back when Prozac (fluoxetine) and Zoloft (sertraline) were new, I remember the mental acrobatics doctors made to justify giving these drugs to anxious patients. The drugs were approved for treating depression, but we knew they often seemed to help anxiety. The reason, we were told, was that some anxious patients were actually depressed, deep down, and we had just failed to recognize their depression.
Now, with studies to support their use ...

One of the frustrating aspects of medical practice is trying to decide if the medication I am prescribing is covered by the patient’s insurance company. Even with the advent of electronic medical records, which should be able to determine this, we are often left to hope and pray.
Here’s how it works. Individual insurance companies have formularies -- lists of approved drugs -- that they encourage patients and their physicians to use. ...

Over the past few months, more attention has been paid to the prescription drug epidemic, with increasing rates of accidental deaths noted across the country. Legislatures in different states are currently considering laws to provide first responders access to reversal agents, such as naloxone, to treat people found on the scene who have likely overdosed on these medications. With increasing media coverage, the public is becoming more aware about the ...

I’m 34 weeks pregnant and working hard to keep this baby inside me for as long as possible. As with my last pregnancy, there’s a real risk that the baby could come too early. But we’re both holding on so far, thanks to a combination of luck, modified bed rest and medical science.
The science is my biggest concern right now. I will spare you much of it because, man or ...

There is a new emerging health threat to our children: nicotine poisoning.
The number of nicotine exposures in children reported to the National Poison Data System has more than tripled in the last year.
Here’s the fact every parent should know: 1 tablespoon of nicotine oil can be lethal to a 60-pound child!
When doctors were campaigning against tobacco companies through public health legislation, we did not foresee a resultant new market for ...